Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Looks like Shiva's a-coming to FFXIV

Few avatars are as iconic to the Final Fantasy series as
Shiva is.

The freezing blue beauty is a far cry from the typical Hindu
depiction of the benevolent god, and no one’s quite sure where the idea to
transform him from a four-armed destroyer deity to a scantily-clad ice princess came from, but fans have been pretty happy with the decision ever since.

Shiva made her last series appearance in Final Fantasy XIII-2 (as
a motorcycle...), but now it looks like she’s primed to appear in Final Fantasy XIV:A Realm Reborn once, y’know, the realm’s actually reborn and all that.

Based on the concept art posted on the development blog, Shiva’s
a whole lot less blue and icy this time around.
In fact, she bears more than a passing resemblance to FFIX’s androgynous
antagonist, Kuja...

Or Tilda Swinton from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Although the blog carefully notes that the images of Shiva are "works-in-progress" that "do not fully represent what will appear in-game", it's a pretty safe bet to assume that Shiva will be the next Primal to appear in the game following in the epic footsteps of Ifrit, Garuda, and Good King Moogle Mog XII.

It's unknown when exactly she'll actually make her appearance in FFXIV, but fans can hopefully look forward to a minty-fresh trailer showing off her instanced battle and battle theme in the months ahead. Personally, I hope they go with something a bit bluer that's closer to the original concept art posted on the dev blog: